So old, but so cute!

I forgot about these pictures, but I really want to post them even
though they are almost 3 months old!!!

So when we were having Erin's birthday party at the splash pad (in July), Elaina of course managed to make friends with this random boy who was cruising around the park in a red Mustang convertible. A friend caught my attention and I turned around to see that Elaina had just hopped in and was going for a ride through the park with him!!!!!

Check out the look on that kid's face!!!! (don't you be looking at my little girl like that buddy!)

For now, I guess I am fine with only having to worry about pre-K boys in 4-foot plastic cars!
Twelve years from now, it will be a different story...

Elaina's First Motorcycle Ride

Some pictures of Elaina riding Daddy's motorcycle with him. She had to sit facing him so that he could make sure she didn't burn her legs on the engine.

And just for old time's sake...here's a picture of little Mike riding with his Dad on his Dad's motorcycle. I love that it is a milk crate strapped to the bike with bungee cords! Laws have certainly changed in the last 28 years! :)

Here are a couple videos of Mike & Elaina. I was surprised that she wasn't scared. Mike was excited that she liked it so much! They keep talking about their motorcycle ride.

My Batman Birthday Party

For my birthday last month, my wonderful husband gave me what I've always dreamed of....a Batman Birthday Party!!! :) (.... or perhaps living with 3 girly girls is starting to get to Mike?!?....)

There were masks (which we were all required to wear), Batman napkins, Batman plates, and even a Batman cake which said: "This is Not a Ninja Cake" (because all his efforts at convincing Elaina to have a Ninja b-day party were overruled by us girls in the house).

Thank you to all my family for a great Birthday! I even loved the Batman theme. :)

Preschool!

I'm still playing catch-up on the pictures - these are some pictures of Elaina's first day of preschool in September. She attends twice a week for two hours and loves it! The Moms take turns teaching and rotating the location between our houses.

Elaina - first day of school.
My Mom always took a picture of us on the first day of school - always in the same spot - on the front lawn, in front of the same tree in our brand-new "back-to-school outfit." The tradition continues: here's Elaina on the front lawn on her first day of school, in a brand new 'back-to-school" outfit. Am I really old enough to be starting this tradition with my own kids?!? I guess so.

Preschool Group

Preschool kids, and the brave Moms :)

County Fair

For preschool a couple weeks ago I taught a lesson about Farm Animals and then for our next class we went to the Washington County Fair for a field trip to see all the farm animals. It was lots of fun!

Both Elaina & Erin loved the petting zoo, of course. Even Erin was chasing the little piglet around and was laughing so hard when the animals let her touch them. It was adorable!

The kids loved looking at and climbing in and out of the tractors.

General Conference

Conference was great this weekend! My favorite talk was Elder Bednar's on Saturday morning on making more meaningful prayers. I can't wait to read it again when it comes out in the Ensign! I also loved President Monson's talk Sunday morning, particularly when he encouraged the young parents to cherish the moments we have with our kids right now - even with tiny fingerprints everywhere, endless laundry, dishes.... I love these years with my kids but feel like I spend so much at-time cleaning and doing housework rather than really playing with them. We're involved in a lot of activities outside of the house, but when we're at home I know I need to sit down and actually play more.

I also find myself too-often thinking that things will be easier (and mostly, less time consuming) when the girls are more independent - ie. when Elaina can put herself in the car and buckle her seatbelt so that I don't have two kids to get in and out of the car everywhere we go. Or when they can dress themselves or clean up the toyroom with less help/encouragement/nagging from me. But I know that when they are as independent as I sometimes wish they were that they'll be beyond the ages they are right now and I LOVE these ages and the adorable things they are doing & saying right now. The girls are so fun right now and I am glad for the encouragement to enjoy and love these years with them because it already is passing to quickly.

The other fabulous news is that Calgary is getting a temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! I'm super excited about this!

I hope you all had a great conference weekend too. What were some of your favorite talks/moments?

Catching Up....Summer Water Fun

I'm so behind on posting pictures, but I have a bunch of pictures from the summer that I've been wanting to post. If anything, I know that at least the grandparents will even love pictures that are a couple months old :)

Then these are some pictures/videos of our first time at the splash pad since Erin started walking. This was right after she learned to walk. What a cutie! :)

Conversations I Love....

We borrowed Cinderella from a friend, and so Elaina and I are watching it right now. I love her commentary on the movie, so I have to record it:

"Mommy, Anastasia broke Cinderella's dress!!!! Come, let's tell Anastasia not to break Cinderella's dress." So, she took my hand and had me pause the movie. Then she said to Anastasia (who is paused on the screen): "Anastasia, don't break Cinderella's dress! She just fixed it. It makes me so sad when you do that."

Then when the fairy Godmother came, "oh, it's ok Cinderella...Mom, Cinderella is crying to her Grandma...It's ok Cinderella, your Grandma will fix your dress, don't cry Cinderella."

And then..."Look Mom! Cinderella is going to the temple to dance with her Daddy!" aka Prince Charming :)

"Cinderella danced with the Prince - it was her slipper! Cinderella's slipper doesn't fit me. It only fits Cinderella!"

Stalling.....

Elaina is mastering the art of bedtime stalling. Tonight she came up with nearly every tactic there is...

First, she wanted someone to sing her a song.

Then she remembered we forgot to say prayers - ok, she got us on that one, so she won that time.

Then she said we forgot to brush her teeth (she was wrong, but it was still a good excuse to get out of bed....).

Then she needed a drink of water.

Then she needed me to cover her with a blanket.

Then she remembered that she didn't finish the apple crisp she had for dessert....3 hours ago...and she needed to finish it. Um, it's long gone.

Then she wanted the door open so that the monsters can't get her, but when I couldn't open the door at the right angle, she had to get out of bed to show me how far open the door needs to be.

Then she needed me to help cover her with the blanket (again).

Then she actually got out of bed (opening the door, and taking off the blanket which had both been so perfectly positioned...) to ask what we are going to do tomorrow.

And then finally, she got out of bed one last time (and this is my favorite!) to tell me that there is something sticky (a piece of scotch tape!) on the outside of her bedroom door that she couldn't clean off the door, and could I get it off for her. Apparently she can't sleep very well when a piece of tape is on the outside of her bedroom door?!?

This is incredible.

Something Kind of Cool About Me & My Family...

Here's something interesting about my family that you probably don't know..... Up in northwestern Ontario (Canada) we have a small town named after our family. The town is called Amesdale and it was named after my great-Grandfather, Samuel George Ames (for those of you who don't know, my maiden name is Ames). He and his wife settled there with their 10 children in the 1920s when it was a small community along the railway. When they wanted to start up a post office, they needed a name for the town, so that's when they came up with the name Amesdale - because my ancestors were a large group of the community. My Grandpa (who I never knew) owned the town's general store and he and my Grandma ran the store and lived upstairs.



My Dad was born during the time that they lived there. A few years later (late 50s I believe?) the store caught fire and my Dad's family sought work elsewhere, moving away from Amesdale. After this time other people gradually started leaving Amesdale - I assume because the need for railway towns during the 50s & 60s wasn't as important as it was earlier and the fire in the store probably hurt the town as well. I might be wrong about that, maybe my Dad can clarify?

There's even a cemetery there, where lots of my family are buried. My Dad's brother & sister (who both died days after their birth) are buried here as well as my Grandparents, Great-Grandparents and many other relatives. My parents plan to be buried there someday as well.

I've been to Amesdale twice - once when I was about 10 for a family camping trip, and the second time when I was in Ontario for my Grandma's funeral - both were incredible experiences to visit and see where my family came from because Amesdale was important part of so many people's lives. This is a picture of my family when we were there after Grandma's funeral in 2001:

My Dad started a blog dedicated to Amesdale where he is gathering information and stories about the history of the town from friends & relatives that lived there. The link is: http://amesdale.blogspot.com/. I'm proud of him for working so hard on this to keep that history preserved.

Anyways, that's just a little bit about my personal family history, whether you wanted it or not :)

Our Fifth Anniversary

Mike and I got to celebrate our 5 year anniversary with an overnight trip to Dallas! I told him months ago that I wanted to go away for our anniversary - I didn't care where, I just wanted to go somewhere! So when we found out that his favorite band, Steely Dan, was playing in Dallas the day after our anniversary, we decided to celebrate our anniversary in Dallas with tickets to see them in concert. It worked out perfectly and we had a great time!

Our friend Erin offered to stay overnight with the girls when she found out that we were going away. We really appreciate her and her two little kiddos, Graham and Annie, being so willing to spend the night at our house with the kids. I know our girls had a blast! Elaina is still talking about it and all the fun things they did. And our little Erin (who is very attached to Mommy right now) got attached to my friend Erin as well! For both of their sakes, I'm glad! The next morning my friend Robyn also helped us out by watching them all morning at her house. I don't think the girls even missed us, they had so much fun while we were gone! It makes the trip that much better to know that the kids had a great time too. So a million thanks to Robyn and Erin for helping us make this happen!

The concert was great! I really like Steely Dan, but I usually only listen to them when Mike has it on, but I actually knew most of the songs too...he does listen to them a lot! :) It's amazing how talented these musicians are, especially at improv, which they did a lot of that night. I have a new appreciation for this band after attending the concert. Mostly though, it was great to be there with Mike. This last year has been pretty busy and stressful that it was nice to have a worry free weekend before it started all over again. Elaina was so excited for us too when I told her that Mommy and Daddy where going on a date (she knows what a date is because Princess Giselle talks about it in Enchanted).

This song is called Kid Charlemagne, and it was the last song they played during the encore, and also one of our favorites of the night. The camera really distorts the sound pretty badly.

Happy Anniversary Mike, I love you! :)

I'm Done with Three!

Elaina and I had a funny conversation on Monday, just a couple days after her birthday party:

Mom: Elaina, did you have a fun birthday party?
Elaina: Ya, I did! I want to have another birthday party! I want to have a Dumbo party!
Mom: Well, we have to wait till next year when you turn four.
Elaina: I want to be four. I'm done with three.
Mom: Well, you won't be four for a while.
Elaina: I want to be one then. I'm done with three.
Mom: You don't want to be one again! You've already been one. Besides, if you're one, you won't be able to talk. Erin's one.
Elaina: Erin can talk! She can say "da-da-da"!!!!

Since then we've heard many many times that she is done with three. I can't believe it! She was so excited to be three and has been talking about it for months. Now as soon as she's three, she's ready to be done with it?!?!?!?!

Happy Birthday Elaina!

Elaina turned three this month!!! It was a special birthday because it was 08-08-o8 this year! So When Elaina was born she was 8lb 8 oz as well, so 8 has got to be her lucky number! So I'm pretty sure that this means it's going to be a lucky year, right?!?

Elaina is our little social butterfly and I always write about how talkative she is because some of the funniest things come out of this little girl's mouth. However, one other wonderful quality about Elaina is that she is so thoughtful of others. This is especially true of her relationship with Erin - she always makes sure that Erin has a toy or a cup or food, or whatever she feels that Erin needs at the time. It's so wonderful to see her be the big sister taking such good care of her little sister. The other day we were driving to Houston to a bbq with one of Mike's classmates and Erin was getting fussy. Elaina reached over to Erin and held her hand, whispering "it's ok sweetie....we're almost there...you'll be ok." It calmed Erin down and Elaina held her hand for several minutes. And each time Erin would start crying again, Elaina would reach over and do it again. She's the same with me and Mike, always asking, "what can I do for you?" or making sure that our owwies get lots of kisses. Her relationships with people are very important to her, and she considers everyone a friend. She remembers specific details about people and what she learns about them. It amazes me what she observes and remembers about her friends and family that she interacts with. We're also so glad to have Elaina part of our family and we love this little girl so much! Happy Birthday Elaina!

The cake I made for our little family party turned out to be a disaster! I'm such an amateur at this, but the cake was lopsided, the frosting was melting by the time we were able to eat it, I ran out of frosting to edge it. Ah, it was a mess! And right before we were about to sing one of the corners completely fell off, so we had to squish it back into place for the sake of a good picture. Thank goodness little Elaina loved it and can't tell yet that it was a disaster. In her eyes it was a masterpiece and that's all the matters! And thank goodness for that! :)

Opening gifts with family


These pictures are from Elaina's birthday party with friends. It was a great day and I think everyone had a lot of fun! We decorated party hats, played relay games, pin-the-tail, and each guest got to pick a present from the "close line" as their party favor:

Pin-the-Tail on the camel
*courtesy of Nana & Grandpa in Saudi Arabia!

Blowing out candles...thank goodness she chose a simple cake the second time around!

Opening Presents

Memories

I love reminiscing and saw this on a couple of my friends' blogs. So do it, it'll be fun!!! :)

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Happy Birthday Little Erin-girl!

Our little Erin turned one a week and a half ago (July 20)! I can't believe it's already been a year, but at the same time, it's hard to imagine that there was a time when she wasn't a part of our family either. We love this girl so much! The perfect word to describe Erin is "sweetheart" because she is absolutely such a sweetheart. I love that even newborns have their own, distinct personality. Erin is so easy to please and easy to take care of. It seems the only thing she wants is to be loved, which is very easy for us to do. :) She genuinely loves and cares for people, and has the sweetest, warmest smile to show it. She loves to be cuddled and she loves to play and be apart of whatever we are doing. The excitement in her eyes when her big sister enters the room is priceless.

We are so blessed to have Erin part of our family. We love watching her grow and do new things, and we're excited for all the exciting things she will do and learn next year. Happy Birthday Erin. We love you!

Birthday Fun!

We had a joint birthday party on Saturday with Erin's friend, Julia, who was born the day after Erin. We did it at the splash pad at a nearby park. Here are the two cute birthday girls!

Our friend Stephanie made the cutest cake for the birthday girls - she is an incredible cake decorator! I wish I could capture all the detail on the cake, but a picture just doesn't do it justice. Thanks Steph for a fabulous birthday cake (and yummy too!)!!

I made a cake on Sunday because it was a tradition growing up that my Mom always made our birthday cakes - and even if we had a "friend" party, we had a cake for a "family" party as well. I would like to try and be as good as my Mom was and make a cake for each of my children's birthdays. I am not a pro at this, so my cake is nowhere near as good as Steph's! My Mom discovered that her first birthday cake was a bunny cake, and my first birthday cake was a bunny cake, so since she recently discovered this, I thought it would be cool to do a bunny for Erin as well.

Here's a slide show of other pictures of her birthday festivities: